Smith and Quebec team up to fight feds
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Summary
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith wrote a letter to Quebec s Francois Legault proposing that the two provinces team up in the battle against federal overreach. Quebec has since replied, saying it s happy to create an autonomy alliance to further loosen the tight grasp that the feds have over the provinces. Meanwhile, Smith defends her trip to meet with Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro.
Transcript
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Alberta Premier Daniel Smith wrote a letter to Quebec Premier François Legault
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proposing that the two provinces team up in the battle against federal overreach.
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Quebec has since replied, saying it's happy to create an autonomy alliance
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to further loosen the tight grasp that the feds have over the two provinces.
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Right after meeting with Smith, Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro stood up for Alberta and Canada
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by voicing his opposition to tariffs on Canadian goods.
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Smith has also continued to highlight Liberal Party of Canada leader Mark Carney's contradictions,
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reminding Canadians that he told her one thing in person about Bill C-69,
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but said another when they weren't together, adding that neither she nor the province would tolerate this.
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Ending on a good note, though, Smith celebrated the recently announced tariffs
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and that the United States have seemingly respected Kuzma
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by not putting a tariff on the majority of goods sold into the United States from Canada.
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All that and more on the Alberta Roundup today with your host, me, Isaac Lamoureux.
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Smith's letter to Quebec, which was obtained by True North,
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followed her reading of Quebec's report of the Advisory Committee
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on Quebec's constitutional issues within the Canadian Federation.
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Smith had sent the letter to Legault on March 21st.
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related to Quebec's constitutional power and freedom,
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the province's relation to the country, and other niche issues.
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Alberta and Quebec should work together more often to keep Ottawa in their lane
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and to protect the constitutionally protected jurisdictions of our provinces.
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In her letter, Smith highlighted 12 of the recommendations specifically
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and discussed how the two provinces could accomplish them collaboratively.
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She said in the English version of her letter, which was also provided in French,
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It is evident that Alberta and Quebec have significant common interests
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with respect to countering overreach by the federal government
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into matters of exclusive provincial jurisdiction.
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The first recommendation Smith highlighted was the report's call
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to provide Quebec with a framework law on defending and enhancing its constitutional freedom.
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She said Alberta had acted similarly by implementing the Alberta Sovereignty
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Within United Canada Act, and that she was willing to share information with Legault
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so that he could implement similar legislation in Quebec.
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Another recommendation Smith aligned with was adopting a constitutional amendment
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to enshrine provincial laws concerning property and private law.
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This change would ensure that provincial laws and civil rights
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overrule federal laws that intrude on provincial jurisdiction.
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It could be used to fight the Liberals' gun buyback program.
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Despite the federal government throwing over $600 million at the program thus far,
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as the democratically elected leaders of Alberta and Quebec,
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to chart a path forward to a new era in Canadian federalism.
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I propose an initial conversation between ourselves,
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followed by a jointly authored letter to our provincial and territorial counterparts,
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to enhance provincial autonomy within the Federation.
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The letter, of course, comes as the referendum movement gains momentum in Alberta.
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Alberta could hold a referendum at its next series of municipal elections,
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Former Premier Jason Kenney conducted a referendum on Alberta equalization,
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similarly by including a constitutional referendum question on the municipal election ballot.
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saying it is very happy with Smith's proposal to create an autonomy alliance.
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The Montreal Gazette revealed that Simon Jolien Barrette,
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the province's minister responsible for Canadian relations,
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said the province is open to meeting with Smith to talk about her proposal more.
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Jolien Barrette said that Smith's letter proves that Quebec's government's nationalist approach
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to seek more power in the Federation is working,
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and that the provincial government will run on this platform again in the 2026 election.
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I find it very positive that within Canada there are Federation partners that agree
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with more autonomy and a framework to limit the federal right to spend in areas of provincial jurisdiction.
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It's very interesting because historically, Quebec and Alberta worked together,
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and we will continue to work together on autonomy of the different provinces.
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Now, coming back with an update on our lead story last week,
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which was, of course, Smith defending her trip to meet with Daily Wire founder Ben Shapiro in Florida.
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Her trip was fruitful as Shapiro came out immediately after their meeting fighting for Canada.
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Right now, Americans are giving President Trump the benefit of the doubt, as they should.
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He's doing a lot of great things, which we'll get to in a moment, particularly with regard to Doge.
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However, this is having an impact on President Trump's approval ratings, particularly on the economy.
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And as I've said before, the way that people's relationship with politicians works in terms of public approval rating
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If the marriage is good, it's people doing little things for each other.
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It's people with a shared sense of values that carries out over time.
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If things go bad, typically there are a bunch of things that are small
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and that eat away at the back of your mind that are bad.
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And right now, if the bottom goes out on the economy,
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it will take the rest of President Trump's agenda with it.
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CNN's Harry Enten was analyzing the polls with regard to the economy,
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and they are not where they should be for President Trump.
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So on this particular issue, Donald Trump is simply put not with the American public.
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They oppose the tariffs, and yet they believe Donald Trump is going ahead with them.
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And that is a big reason why we've seen Donald Trump's overall approval rating
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take a pretty big dip over the last two months and change.
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Okay, so, again, President Trump is still riding pretty high,
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but all of that is predicated on no serious economic downturn,
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Smith celebrated the result of her work in her own post to X.
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I am pleased to see that the day after I spent the evening speaking with Ben Shapiro
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about the importance of maintaining a tariff-free relationship between Canada and the U.S.,
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he posted this podcast for millions of his Republican and influential viewers to see.
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While we may not agree on everything, we share the same message on this tariff dispute.
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It is bad for Canada, and it is bad for the U.S.
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She highlighted that common ground that was found,
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that being that the tariff war is bad for both countries.
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Smith claimed that Shapiro's Daily Wire has a monthly reach of 220 million followers.
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Journalist David Staples said this is the second-largest audience of anyone in Trump's base.
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In a separate Facebook post, Shapiro said, quote,
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Every time Trump announces new tariffs, the stock market plummets.
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Even while Canada dodged much of the tariffs on April 2nd, the market still took a serious hit.
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Alberta NDP leader Nahid Nenshi complained about Smith meeting with Shapiro before she went,
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Smith grouped Nenshi and Mark Carney as enemies of Alberta,
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warning that they were trying to divide Canadians and were too focused on virtue signaling instead of diplomacy.
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Try and make Canadians forget the utter incompetence of liberal and NDP policies
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inflicted upon this country over the last 10 years.
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Despite saying that Team Carney wanted her to abandon her post
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and let legacy media punnets and left-wing politicians push her around,
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It's the Family and Friends event at Shopper's Drug Mart.
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Get 20% off almost all regular-priced merchandise.
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Tuesday, February 24th and Wednesday, February 25th.
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We will not be pushed around and called traitors for merely having the courage to actually do something
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about our nation's and our province's predicament other than merely indulging in self-righteous tantrums.
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And I, for one, will never be silenced by the party in Ottawa that has sold out our beloved province for the last 10 years
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And until this danger to Alberta and our economy is passed,
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they're going to have to roll me off in a stretcher before I stop fighting for this province and our people.
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Taking it back to another aspect we covered last week,
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Smith highlighted one of the many contradictions that Mark Carney has made.
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She said that he told her in person that Bill C-69 was bad for energy projects and needed to be dealt with.
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Perhaps him dealing with it was somehow misinterpreted, though,
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as Carney has now come out in support of the No More Pipelines Act.
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He said his government would not repeal the bill.
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Hopefully this election results in a new prime minister that can be trusted to get rid of these terrible policies.
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In Smith's first meeting with Carney, she laid out various demands to, quote,
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One of the demands, of course, was to kill Bill C-69.
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Many of the other demands echoed those of the 14 energy behemoths in the letter they recently wrote to Carney,
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These other demands included scrapping the planned emissions cap,
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repealing the carbon levy on major industrial emitters,
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and lifting regulatory barriers that have slowed the sector.
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While the consumer portion of the carbon tax was lowered to $0 on April 1st,
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The Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act remains on the books and can only be removed by a majority vote in Parliament.
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Nonetheless, Smith posted a picture of her holding up an Axe the Tax sign on X,
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celebrating Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre's government for their years of pressure and work on dealing with the carbon tax.
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She said Albertans can expect to save $215 in fuel and $480 in home heating annually.
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She said her government will be watching retailers and holding them accountable
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to make sure that Albertans get the tax break they deserve.
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The much-anticipated Liberation Day, announced by U.S. President Donald Trump on April 2nd,
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saw Canada avoid much of the worst tariffs as the country was excluded from a list of countries
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who had reciprocal tariffs placed against them.
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However, Trump announced a sweeping 25% tariff on all automobile imports, including those from Canada.
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For decades, our country has been looted, pillaged, raped, and plundered by nations near and far,
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American steelworkers, autoworkers, farmers, and skilled craftsmen, they really suffered gravely.
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They watched in anguish as foreign leaders have stolen our jobs,
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and foreign scavengers have torn apart our once-beautiful American dream.
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Canada is also still subject to a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum.
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However, a carve-out for all goods previously negotiated under KUSMA was granted.
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Smith said that the KUSMA carve-out is exactly what she's been asking the U.S. administration
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She added this means that most goods will have no tariffs, such as energy, minerals,
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agricultural products, uranium, seafood, and more.
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I again call on all involved in our national advocacy efforts to focus on diplomacy and persuasion
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Clearly, this strategy has been the most effective to this point.
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As it appears the worst of this tariff dispute is behind us, though there is still work to be done,
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it is my sincere hope that we, as Canadians, can abandon the disastrous policies that have
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made Canada vulnerable to and overly dependent on the United States.
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Fast-track national resource corridors, get out of the way of provincial resource development,
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and turn our country into an independent economic juggernaut and energy superpower.
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The reciprocal tariffs announced by Trump applied to 50 other countries.
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Trump said any company not wanting to pay the tariffs would have to move its manufacturing to
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He noted several companies, including Meta, Apple, and General Motors, which have already
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begun investing up to $500 billion each in moving production to the U.S.
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He also said any nation hit with reciprocal tariffs wishing to remove them will have to remove
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their own tariffs, drop their trade restrictions, and not manipulate their currencies.
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I think you're going to remember today, it's going to be a free nation that we're dealing
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We're going to have a very free and beautiful nation.
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It's going to be Liberation Day in America, and it's going to be a day that hopefully you're
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going to look back in years to come, and you're going to say, you know, he was right.
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This has turned out to be one of the most important days in the history of our country.
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My name's Isaac Lamoureux, your host of the Alberta Roundup.